Some good news for residents fed up with lights that never get fixed.

Reigate and Banstead will have all streetlights replaced in the first phase of the PFI. Work should start in March 2010 and take a year to complete.

The new system should allow repairs to be addressed much more quickly. Under the contract, Skanska will have to repair equipment faults within 6 days and will be subject to strict penalties for non performance.

Not so good for Mole Valley though; they don’t get their new system until 2015!

What a waste

A hotly anticipated announcement on the new waste strategy was expected at this Full Council meeting in December .

Although it had been clear since June that the new administration had abandoned plans for its mass burn incinerator at Capel, only the Cabinet were privy to the proposed alternative until now.

I was shocked to learn that an announcement was to be made to the press before the meeting and therefore before any opposition councillors were aware of the plans, a fact Hazel objected to in the meeting but was rebuffed with the comment that this was “standard practice”.

An “eco park” consisting of anaerobic digestion and gasification plants is proposed, capable of dealing with 40,000 and 60,000 tonnes of waste respectively along with an education centre.

As far as the technology is concerned, this is broadly in line with what the Lib Dems have been suggesting for some time, however the location is more controversial with many suspicious that Surrey’s waste is being dumped on the least affluent (and least Conservative) parts of the county

You can see the official press release on the SCC website and Diana Smith has already written in some detail about this on her blog

On the Buses

Also of great importance today are the items relating to the bus review about which I had a number of questions and a motion tabled.

Surrey is undergoing a thorough review of its subsidised bus services, and routes in Reigate and Banstead could be axed or reduced in 2010. Services under threat include the 324, sections of the 430/435 routes and the school specials. Many residents are understandably devastated by the prospect of losing these services and I have been very vocal in supporting their opposition to the cuts.

Although the main aim of the review is to cut subsidies, the Council leadership claim that “residents have asked SCC to review the service as they are concerned about the level of empty buses travelling around Surrey”.

“Exactly how many residents had expressed such a concern?” was one of my questions to Ian Lake, the Cabinet Member for Transport.

Quite simply I didn’t believe that there were many, if any. I have received a lot of comments from residents about bus services and nobody has ever raised this as an issue.

The answer, a “number” of residents was too vague but I could get nothing more specific on further questioning. I did however receive an assurance that this was a genuine consultation and that more emphasis would be placed on the views of bus users, rather than non users who object to funding bus services.

A lively debate on our motion opposing bus cuts followed (including the Pegasus School bus service which has already been axed). I spoke specifically about the level of opposition to the cuts in the last few weeks, the petitions and calls I have received, and the Surrey Mirror “Save the 324” campaign that I have been supporting.

As expected not a single Conservative supported the motion or even abstained.

Let’s hope that this really is a true consultation and that the Council take notice of the level of opposition to the cuts. If you haven’t already done so, please make your views known to the Council.

I am afraid my computer had a serious breakdown over the holiday period so I have not been able to update my blog but I will report back on the highlights of December’s full council meeting very soon!

Looking forward to an exciting 2010.